Wednesday, September 12, 2012

September 5th marks the one year anniversary of the official start of the Va Flaggers! We would like to celebrate an amazing year of tremendous growth, success, trials, honors, and victories by inviting ALL who have ever flagged with us... ever flagged anywhere... ever supported us in any way... ever wanted to flag...or just want to come and see what we are all about... to join us for a picnic at the home of Virginia Flagger Grayson Jennings, on the edge of the Gaines Mill Battlefield. We will gather at 3:00, eat at 5:00 and wrap up at 8:00 p.m.

The Va Flaggers will provide the main dish and beverages. We ask attendees to bring a side dish or dessert, if able. We will have live music, lots of photos, memories, and information to share...and a look back on an amazing, incredible first year for the Va Flaggers.

The inauguration date of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederate States was the birthdate of the first President of the United States. Leaving the Northern States with their old political union unimpaired, the South created a more perfect union with the consent of the governed, and with a leader in the mold of Washington. The following is an excerpt from Davis’ first inaugural speech.

Bernhard Thuersam, ChairmanNorth Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commissionwww.ncwbts150.com"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Crucible of Refined Patriotism:

“Our Confederacy has grown from six to thirteen States; and Maryland, already united to us by hallowed memories and material interests, will, I believe, when able to speak with un-stifled voice, connect her destiny with the South.

Our people have rallied with unexampled unanimity to the support of the great principles of constitutional government, with firm resolve to perpetuate by arms the right which they could not peaceably secure. A million of men, it is estimate, are now standing in hostile array, and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles.

We too have had our trials and difficulties. That we are to escape them in the future is not to be hoped. It was to be expected when we entered upon this war that it would expose our people to sacrifices and cost them much, both on money and blood. But we knew the value of the object for which we struggled, and understood the nature of the war in which we were engaged. Nothing could be so bad as failure, and any sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a contest.

But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. This great strife has awakened in the people the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul. It is cultivating feelings of patriotism, virtue and courage. Instances of self-sacrifice and of generous devotion to the noble cause for which we are contending are rife throughout the land.

Never has a people evinced a more determined spirit than that now animating men, women and children in every part of our country. Upon the first call the men flew to arms, and wives and mothers send their husbands and sons to battle without a murmur of regret.

It was, perhaps, in the ordination of Providence that we were to be taught the value of our liberties by the price which we pay for them. The recollections of this great contest, with all its common traditions of glory, of sacrifice and blood, will be the bond of harmony and enduring affection amongst the people, producing unity in policy, fraternity in sentiment, and just effort in war. War of conquest [the Southern people] cannot wage, because the Constitution of their Confederacy admits of no coerced association. Civil war there cannot be between States held together by their volition only.

To show ourselves worthy of the inheritance bequeathed to us by the patriots of the Revolution, we must emulate that heroic devotion which made reverse to them but the crucible in which their patriotism was refined. With humble gratitude and adoration, acknowledging the Providence which has so visibly protected the Confederacy during its brief but eventful career, to thee, O God, I trust and commit myself, and prayerfully invoke thy blessing on my country and its cause.”

Every square mile, indeed every square foot, of the land and water area of the 50 states of this nation is either the private property of individuals or organizations which have legally acquired it, or it is the property of all of the legal citizens of the United States as a whole – - –it is public land.

Time and time again our governing document, the Constitution of the United States, refers to and affirms the right of the legal owners of private property to be secure in the ownership and the use of that property in whatever ways they choose, whether it is personal property such as cars and furniture or real property such as houses and land.

This country has incredibly vast and rich natural resources, and they are here for the use and enjoyment of the American people. They are here for residential, business, agricultural, recreational, and any and all other uses that private individuals or organizations choose to legally acquire and use them for.

There is no value or merit whatsoever in having any land or water of this nation “locked away” from the use of human beings. There is absolutely no valid reason at all to have any land or water placed into any kind of trust or conservation area or conservancy in such a way as to legally forbid all human use of that land or water in the future, to have it locked away from all human usage “in perpetuity.”

Two back-to-back snowstorms in February of 1863 provided the ammunition for a friendly snowball battle amongst rival divisions of Confederate troops near Fredericksburg, Virginia. On February 19, eight inches of snow fell on the region. Two days later, nine inches of snow fell. On February 25, sunny skies and mild temperatures softened the deep snow cover, providing ideal conditions for making snowballs.

During this time, the Confederate Army was camped near Fredericksburg. Some of the Divisions of the army had been reorganized, which had created friendly rivalries between the Confederate brigades and regiments. This helped spark a huge snowball battle near Rappahannock Academy in which approximately 10,000 Confederate soldiers participated. One soldier who participated in the snowball battle described it as one of the most memorable combats of the war.”

The battle started on the morning of February 25, 1863, when General Hoke’s North Carolina soldiers marched towards Colonel Stiles’ camp of Georgians, with the intent of capturing the camp using only snowballs. The attacking force, composed of infantry, cavalry and skirmishers, moved in swiftly. Battle lines formed and the fight began with “severe pelting” of snowballs. Reinforcements arrived from all sides to assist the brigade under attack. Even the employees of the commissary joined the snowball battle. Soon, the attacking soldiers were pushed back.

Hoke’s beaten soldiers retreated back to their camp. Colonel Stiles then held a Council of War on how best to attack the retreating force. He decided to organize his men and march directly into their camp, with snowballs in hand. When Stile’s forces finally arrived in Hoke’s camp, they were quite surprised to find that their adversaries had rallied and filled their haversacks to the top with snowballs. This allowed Hoke’s soldiers to provide an endless barrage of snowballs “without the need to reload.” The attacking force was quickly overwhelmed and many of their soldiers were captured and “whitewashed” with snow. The snowball battle came to an end and both brigades settled back into their respective camps. The captured prisoners were quickly paroled and returned to their camp, to much heckling from fellow soldiers. It was noted that General Stonewall Jackson had witnessed the snowball battle. One soldier remarked that he had wished Jackson and staff had joined the fight so he could have thrown a snowball at “the old faded uniforms.”

The weather turned mild and rainy in the following days. Other snowball battles were documented during the Civil War – including a snowball fight at Dalton, Georgia – but The Snowball Battle of Rappahannock Academy was unique in size, strategy and ample snow cover. The depth of the snow cover on the day of the battle was documented in a soldier’s diary to be 12 inches.

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to extend the government’s power to warrantlessly wiretap Americans for another five years by reauthorizing the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Lawmakers in the House agreed from Washington, DC on Wednesday afternoon to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), a polarizing legislation that has been challenged by privacy advocates and civil liberties organizations alike around the country. The extension was approved by a vote of 301 to 118.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was first signed into law in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter, but amendments added two decades later under the George W Bush administration provide for the government to conduct widespread and blanketing snooping of emails and phone calls of Americans. The FISA Amendments added in 2008, specifically section 702, specify that the government can eavesdrop on emails and phone calls sent from US citizens to persons reasonably suspected to be located abroad without ever requiring intelligence officials to receive a court order.

If the US Senate echoes the House’s extension of the act, the FAA will carry through for another five years until 2017, ensuring the federal intelligence community that they will be able to conduct surveillance on the correspondence of the country’s own citizens well into the future. If no action is taken, the FAA is slated to expire at the end of 2012.

Earlier this year, a plea from two US senators to see how many times the FAA has been used was refused by the National Security Administration. Last month, San Francisco’s Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the US Justice Department for failing to adhere to Freedom of Information Act requests for documents pertaining to the program.

"I am not in support of the government, but the FSA are all a bunch of thugs and thieves."

The Christian community has tried to avoid taking sides in the civil war. In Aleppo, it recruited vigilantes from the Boy Scout movement to protect churches, but as the war moved into the city and spread across its suburbs they have begun to accept weapons from the Syrian army and joined forces with Armenian groups to repel opposition guerrillas.

"Everybody is fighting everybody," said George, an Armenian Christian from the city. "The Armenians are fighting because they believe the FSA are sent by their Turkish oppressors to attack them, the Christians want to defend their neighbourhoods, Shabiha regime militia are there to kill and rape, the army is fighting the FSA, and the [Kurdish militant group] PKK have their own militia too."

For the past six weeks up to 150 Christian and Armenian fighters have been fighting to prevent Free Syrian Army rebels from entering Christian heartland areas of Aleppo.

Last month the Syrian army claimed a 'victory' in removing FSA fighters from the historic Christian quarter of Jdeidah. But Christian

militia fighters told the Daily Telegraph it was they who had first attacked the FSA there.

The officials said that there were indications that members of a militant faction calling itself Ansar al Sharia - which translates as Supporters of Islamic Law - may have been involved in organizing the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya's second-largest city.

They also said some reporting from the region suggested that members of Al-Qaeda's north Africa-based affiliate, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, may have been involved.

"It bears the hallmarks of an organized attack" and appeared to be preplanned, one U.S. official said.

The officials asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information. More specific details about the possible role of militant groups or cells in the attack were not immediately available.

One U.S. official noted that, in the wake of the collapse of the government of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year, Libyan government arsenals were looted, making small arms and more sophisticated weapons available both to potential militants and black marketeers.

If you're like me, you're skeptical when claims are made about turning your semi-automatic AR-15 into a BATF legal full-auto M-16 for only $39.95. A poor man's dream? Sound too good to be true? We have all seen ads for these trigger devices that simulate full auto fire, Hellfire, Tac Trigger and Tri-Burst, to name a few. All these devices make big claims, but I have rarely heard an actual user who is satisfied with these trigger devices performance. I myself bought one of these trigger systems several years ago and after hearing poor user reviews on the AR-15 digest and reading the operating instructions with the device, decided it was more hassle than it was worth to even attempt to use that trigger system. Most of these systems rely on a spring lever mounted behind the trigger to get the rifle rocking back and forth to achieve the full auto affect from the operator's side, which is a tough balancing act to perform. Any attempt at any form of aimed fire from the shoulder is out of the question.

After all this, I was intrigued a short time ago when a fellow AR-15 lister posted favorable results with a new system I had never heard of before, the GAT Trigger System. I did a quick Web search and came up with the following two web sites selling this new GAT Trigger:

I decided to order from Flashdistributor, 970-249-0302 $39.95 + $3 shipping, as it is located closer to my home and I figured the shipping time would be shorter. Three days later the unit arrived at my house and I eagerly opened the package to get this installed on my Ar-15. The GAT seems to be well designed and thought out and has Germany stamped on its side. The GAT Trigger System attaches in front of the rifle trigger and has a lever with a thimble shaped cup on its end. As you rotate this lever a activator bar pushes against the trigger to fire the weapon. One full rotation of the lever will cause the trigger to fire 4 times and it can be fired from the shoulder in a normal shooting position.

For installation, all safety rules apply, check to see the rifle is safe and UNLOADED. Double check this again, then pull back the charging handle to cock the trigger. A side cover needs to be removed to attach the GAT to the rifle. Both a long and short activator are provided to fit to different rifles such as SKS, AK, and 10/22. The instructions say the short activator is used on most rifles, so that is the one I used. This activator slides in the unit and some care must be taken not to lose or drop it as you attach the system to your rifle as it can fall out. Two screws under the unit are tightened to the trigger guard when you determine (trial and error) the correct operating distance to the rifle's trigger. I wasn't reading the instructions too closely and over tightened these screws and the unit cracked and fell off my Pre-ban Colt. "Dang!" (Not the actual word uttered) I re read the instructions and it states to only hand tighten these bottom screws then reinstall the side plate for its added strength and support. In my defense, the screws are real tight and can't be hand tightened, only tightened with the enclosed allen wrench.

I called Flashdistributor and said I cracked the GAT unit. The guy on the phone told me he needs to make the instructions clearer on putting the side plate on first before final tightening of the bottom screws and said he'd get another GAT trigger in the mail to me that day. It was more my fault for the break than the instructions so it was nice of him to send me a replacement at no cost. Three days later the new unit arrived. This time I reinstalled the side plate before final tightening of the bottom screws as instructed, with no problems this time with installation.

The Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society will host a panel of distinguished authors, researchers and nationally acclaimed scholars to address the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings controversy in a comprehensive review of the facts of the historic record to date. The academic seminar, “Cracking the Fable: The Truth behind Jefferson and Hemings,” will be held on Saturday, October 27, 2012, in Charlottesville, Virginia on the grounds of the University of Virginia in the Commonwealth Room at Newcomb Hall, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission to this special event is free and open to the public.

The seminar will include a presentation by Dr. Robert F. Turner, Chairman of the independent Jefferson-Hemings Scholars Commission. This group of thirteen distinguished scholars, independent and unpaid, spent a year studying all the available evidence relating to whether Jefferson could have been the father of a child by Sally Hemings. It was their “unanimous view that the allegation is by no means proven; and we find it regrettable that public confusion about the 1998 DNA testing and other evidence has misled many people into believing that the issue is closed.” Significantly, in addition to the unanimous conclusion that the allegations were not proven, the Scholars Commission voted 12-1 that the allegations were probably not true.

NAGO on far left. The Rescue of River City is excellent, but ends with a sad note. One of his warrior's, Bao, went into the hills to continue fighting the Communists after the end. Years later, the Communists told Bao's sister that if he and his men turned themselves in, then they would grant them amnesty. Unfortunately, he believed them, and when he came to Chau Doc to surrender, they immediately took him to the marketplace and promptly executed him. Drew Dix ends his book with the follow words.

"It was a humiliating way for a warrior to go and I often think of him

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A few weeks ago, while on the road, HH6 and I stopped to do some shopping at a local thrift shop (a favorite past time). Amongst the other items she found, HH6 found a couple of books for me. Most notable of these, thus far, is a book I read decades ago, in junior high or high school, on the Vietnam conflict.

“Silence Was A Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages,” by Stuart A. Herrington, is a study of the author’s experience as a young military intelligence Captain in the Phoenix Program. Because of the relevance of this book to the subject of this blog, I’m going to take the time to quote some excerpts, and interject my own commentary on why any specific excerpt is relevant, and how it ties into the resistance side of the spectrum, versus the counter-insurgent’s.

As COL. Herrington (as an interesting historical note, now retired Colonel Herrington’s audit of Abu Ghraib was one of the primary causes of the public exposure of the abuses that were occurring there. As will be seen below, his experiences and the abuses he witnessed in Vietnam led to a career-long disgust with torture and “enhanced interrogations.”) points out in the preface to his book, the views he expressed were “offered with the sincere hope that they will assist in clarifying why the well-intentioned efforts of our country to win the “hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese people ended with the ignominious departure of our ambassador from the roof of his embassy in an evacuation helicopter.“

Violent protests in Libya that claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador were the result of President Obama’s decision to intervene in the Libyan revolt without a “deep appreciation” for what would follow, former CIA Director Michael Hayden tells Newsmax.

Hayden, a former four-star Air Force general, was appointed CIA director by President George W. Bush in 2006 and served until 2009.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV on Wednesday, Hayden discusses the events in Libya: “I’m reminded of Secretary of State Powell’s comments about Iraq going back almost a decade — the Pottery Barn theory that if you break it you own it.

“Here’s a case where we went into Libya for reasons that seemed very powerful for some people at the time, almost all of them in Tehran, perhaps without a true or deep appreciation for what the secondary and tertiary effects of overthrowing [Libyan ruler Moammar] Gadhafi would be.

According to a CBS News report updated at 8:39 am Eastern time Wednesday, the Libyan security forces hired to protect the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya moved Ambassador Chris Stevens to a second building within the consulate, then told the militant crowds where he was:

Wanis al-Sharef, a Libyan Interior Ministry official in Benghazi, said the four Americans were killed when the angry mob, which gathered to protest a U.S.-made film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad, fired guns and burned down the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

He said Stevens, 52, and other officials were moved to a second building, deemed safer, after the initial wave of protests at the consulate. According to al-Sharef, members of the Libyan security team seem to have indicated to the protesters the building to which the American officials had been relocated, and that building then came under attack.

Stevens, 52, was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.

Questions about the cause of Ambassador Stevens' death remain unanswered. Initial reports indicated that he died when the car he was in was hit by a grenade launcher. Subsequent reports indicate that he was suffocated.

But some reports indicated that he may not have been killed in an attack on the car, but instead was dragged through the crowd and killed in some other manner. A photograph purporting to be of Ambassador Stevens, who appears to be still alive, but being dragged through a crowd of militant protesters, appeared on the website National Turk.

In addition to Ambassador Stevens, two Marines and an embassy staff member were killed. The Marines appeared to have been sent in from another location just as the protest erupted

On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.

But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.

These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against.

“The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”

Update

Liberal Irish reporter Fergal Keane of the BBC is told from the horses mouth (a Black South African) that Blacks were better off under Apartheid and that their lives would only get better if the Apartheid government came back to power.

Fergal: Do you ever think your life is going to get better Josef?

Josef: Maybe my life would change if the Nationalist Party came back, not the ANC.

Fergal: I don't believe you. Come on. That was a White government that put you down, that treated you terribly, you cant really believe that?

Josef: But in terms of work they didn't oppress us. We didn't struggle for work then.

It appears that even when confronted with overwhelming evidence that he supported the wrong people in South Africa, liberal Irish reporter Fergal Keane still refuses to accept that he was wrong and then proceeds to tell a Black South African, living in South Africa that he, Irishman Fergal Keane who lives in Ireland knows better.

Police didn't notify the U.S. Forest Service about the training they organized for 35 tactical team officers from Portland and elsewhere around the metro area, said Stan Hinatsu, a Forest Service manager. The federal agency oversees the site -- Cape Horn -- where the targets were set up. Cape Horn, located in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, is across from Bridal Veil along the Washington side of the river.

The Forest Service found out only after a Portland man who was kayaking along the Columbia came upon officers staging approaches from their boats and firing live ammunition at steel targets set up on the shoreline in front of Cape Horn's distinct basalt cliffs. It sounded, he said, "like a war." He then notified conservation groups.

In an exclusive interview with TheBlaze on Tuesday, Dinesh D’Souza, creator of “2016: Obama’s America,“ said President Barack Obama and his campaign are now attacking him because they are ”scared” of his documentary and what it reveals.

It’s true that with the 2012 presidential election just around the corner, Obama and his campaign can‘t be happy to see that D’Souza’s anti-Obama documentary is now the second biggest political documentary of all time, surpassing popular liberal productions like Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” and Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”

That may be why Obama’s so-called “Truth Team” attacked D’Souza and his film openly and aggressively on BarackObama.com last week, calling it a “deliberate distortion of President Obama and his worldview” and D’Souza a “right-wing” author peddling conspiracy theories. Or perhaps “2016” has grown so popular that the Obama campaign can’t ignore it any longer.

Regardless, it is clear that D‘Souza’s film has caught the attention of the White House and its inhabitant.

D’Souza sat down with TheBlaze to respond to allegations coming from the Obama campaign that his documentary provides a “distorted” and dishonest view of Obama and his past.

Point-by-point D‘Souza seemingly debunked the Obama team’s attacks, some based on topics that were not even mentioned in “2016: Obama’s America” and are found in his best-selling book “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” which the film is based on.

“I think they are scared — and they have a reason to be scared,” D’Souza told TheBlaze. “But I certainly welcome the Obama team getting into this because it seems like the old strategy has completely failed, you know: Ignore it, pray really hard and hope it goes away.”

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed as they rushed away from a consulate building in Benghazi, stormed by al Qaeda-linked gunmen blaming America for a film that they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Gunmen had attacked and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, late on Tuesday evening as another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

The California-born ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was trying to leave the consulate building for a safer location as part of an evacuation when gunmen launched an intense attack, apparently forcing security personnel to withdraw.

"The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets in their direction," a Libyan official in Benghazi told Reuters. Airport sources said the bodies were due to be flown from Benghazi to Tripoli.

The attack was believed to have been carried out by Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-style Sunni Islamist group that has been active in Benghazi, a Libyan security official said. Witnesses said the mob also included tribesmen, militia and other gunmen.

The Tampa camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is dealing with a secession of its own.

The Gen. Jubal A. Early Camp No. 556 was chartered nine years ago and had boasted more than 100 members. But earlier this year, about a dozen Sons, unhappy with the group's direction, created their own confederacy, the Judah P. Benjamin Camp No. 2210.

"We just differed in our philosophy," said Early Camp Commander Mike Herring. "They left and I think they're doing great. We lost a few members, but we've made them up. We're moving on and we wish them well."

Both groups fiercely defend their Southern heritage and seek to honor their ancestors' actions on the battlefield, but that may be where the similarities end.

Early Camp members still march in parades, make some public appearances and participate in memorials and Civil war re-enactments from Crystal River to Tampa. Much of the focus, though, is on charity work with its "mechanized cavalry" of motorcyclists who do poker runs and toy collections for worthy causes and needy families.

The Benjamin Camp aims for a higher profile and stages public appearances and events heavy on pomp, circumstance and guest speakers. The group's leaders say a main goal is to preserve historical sites around the Tampa area and show them off to the public with an educational slant.

Another difference: The Early Camp ended its close relationship with the local United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter, which was chartered at the same time. The Benjamin Camp welcomed the women into their fold.

The Early Camp might be mostly closely associated with the huge Confederate battle flag that flies over U.S. 92, visible by motorists on Interstates 4 and 75, and the granite informational memorial at its base. The group continues to maintain the memorial site.

Remembrance

To die for one’s country is not only an act of bravery, it is THE act of bravery. For soldiers, it is just an extension of their military career, a part of their duty. As leaders have asked their soldiers to sacrifice themselves for the good of the society, it is only right for leaders to go through the same motion. They should practice what they have preached.

As war is seen as a noble act, tu sat serves as redemption in case of defeat. It is also a way to tell the enemy: “You might have won the battle/war but you don’t deserve to win because you don’t have the chinh nghia (just cause).” And it is not only just cause: it is the moral belief that the cause they are fighting for deserves their total sacrifice. Continues below

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
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My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
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My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
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*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
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*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
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My Black NC Kinfolks
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Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.